More kielbasa

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mtorts

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2015
25
17
Windsor Ontario
Well the weather has been to warm for ice fishing so I decided to make 75lb of kielbasa lol. I used pork venison and moose it came out great. The only slight prob I had is this time around I finished them in 170degree water and found that some of the links lost there colour. Out of the smoker they looked fantastic but the ones that lost color turned out really pale. Any idea why this would happen just to the select few links and what to do to prevent this?? Was there to much meat in the pot?? The colour disappeared almost instantly so it wasnt that they were in there to long. Thanks guys. Cheers. I'll post pics of the good ones and a pale ones to compare.
 
The cut shot looks great. Just finished a plate of lasagna, and still could eat about a pound of that.
 
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That's really odd. You'd expect to loose some color but it should be the same for all of them. Did you use to different casings? The light one looks larger then the nice dark one.

Oh and great looking cut view, nice and meaty!
 
You would think it's a casing issue. Maybe old and new mixed together or just a different batch?
I think you should try them again with new casing. Good excuse to make more! Lol.
 

Another thought, looking at this pic, the light one is plumper, and the dark one is wrinkled. some reason the darker one dried out more then the lighter one. Could the lighter one have been wetter and not absorbed the smoke, then it washed off what was on it when it hit the bath?
 
The casings are all from the same batch which was bought a year ago and kept in salt in the fridge. In the pic yes the dark one is a lot smaller however I believe it's only because that section was at a bend where it was hanging. Many of the other links were just as thick and kept there color. I should also mention that it wasn't the whole link that discoloured it was only sections of certain links. Very strange.
 
MT, I only lack color on sausage that doesn't get enough smoke,never have done the water bath so I'm unsure as to why it happened for you .They look good though !
 
I just did some and pickled them they did not lose any color,in jars for 3 weeks.Your sausage looks good how is the smokey taste. 

Richie
 
Looks like a good sausage. On the coloring issue, five things come to my mind.

1) Natural variation in casings. If one was tough, particularly thick, or scarred in parts, it may be less apt to take on smoke.

2) Something happened in processing or storage of the casings. If that section missed the salt, dried out, got tough, too old, etc. it may be less apt to take on smoke.

3) The casings weren't quite properly rinsed/prepared prior to stuffing.

4) Contact. Anything touching that casing would prevent smoke from getting to that part.

5) Moisture vs. temp while smoking. Wet won't take on smoke, and once a temp or toughness is obtained, it won't take on smoke.

What you would end up with is possibly a slightly to significantly tougher casing in that area, and smoke that didn't take, thus washing off. The sausage itself should be fine - it may taste less smokey than the other sections, or it may have passed enough of that through.
 
It is slightly less smoky in those sections and the casing is more rubbery. It's funny u mention moisture because for the first hr or so of smoking I had lots of moisture in the smoker prob because I had It jammed full. Maybe certain areas stayed wet longer however my brother used the same casings from the same package on his smoker and had the same prob so who knows. Luckily it only happened to a very small portion of the batch. Thanks for all the suggestions
 
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